My Life In Sequences

Leighton Pritchard

The most important thing I ever did

Informal education

Undergraduate

BSc Forensic & Analytical Chemistry (1992-1996)

  • Mostly chemistry (1yr industry)
  • Final year forensics
  • Final year honours project: proteins and computers

Body Fluid Analysis (1996)

  • Glasgow Royal Infirmary

Postgraduate

PhD Bioinformatics (1996-1999)

  • Evolution of snake venom toxins
  • Neural network analogy of protein evolution
  • Drug site discovery algorithm (still in use)

Postdocs (1999-2003)

  • Systems Biology
  • Modelling of yeast metabolism
  • Directed evolution

The SCRI/JHI Years

Bioinformatician (2003-present)

  • Research Institute
  • Bioinformatician/Computational Biologist
  • Not a clear postdoc/PI distinction
  • Ineligible for many usual funding sources (e.g. RCUK)
  • BA Mathematics (Open University)

Bacterial Genomes

2003: Erwinia

  • Arrived at SCRI part-way through sequencing Erwinia carotovora subsp. atrosepticum

(http://sulab.org/2013/06/sequenced-genomes‐per‐year/)

Global pathogens

  • Blackleg, stem-rot
  • Quarantine pathogen

First enterobacterial plant pathogen genome

First enterobacterial plant pathogen genome

  • 32-author bacterial genome paper!
  • £250,000 collaboration between SCRI, University of Cambridge, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
  • All repeats and gaps bridged and sequenced directly
  • A single complete high-quality 5Mbp circular chromosome
  • 3 person-years’ manual annotation